As Fan Expo Canada 2012 enters its last day, I thought I'd make a shout-out to the various artists, artisans, and hucksters who exhibit at the show.

Lots of big companies come to Fan Expo only to replicate their chain stores without any discount or exclusive offers (e.g., EB Games) or just waste their copious floor space (the way Ubisoft has this year). But often forgotten are the little booths set up by local artists, which often demonstrate more creativity and pluck than the big boys.

One of the most impressive such booths was selling a card game called The Aberrant Apothecary, as well as other sundries (custom potion vials and the like). Artist Stephen Sauer explained some of the rules to us of the game he had designed and illustrated while sitting at perhaps the most thematically unified set-up at the Expo: the whole thing was an assemblage of fold-out shelves and planks made to look like an ol'-timey traveling shopkeeper's kit.

Those looking for more badass artifacts might be impressed by the custom sculptures by Spawning Pool Studios. The kits there might have been pricey, but they had a lot more personality than the off-the-shelf sculpture superhero models sold at the nearby comic-shop retailers, which were in some cases not much cheaper.

One first for Fan Expo Canada this year is an on-site wedding (of Amy and Rob Bridges -- congrats!), which had a superhero theme: the Green Lantern oath made it into the vows, naturally. Despite the presence of a platoon of Imperial stormtroopers and other costumed well-wishers, the wedding party itself was more traditionally attired.

It's hard to say whether this equivocation represents a move toward or away from the mainstream -- whether Fan Expo is normalizing a themed wedding, or a traditional wedding is normalizing Fan Expo. My instinct is that it's the latter, especially judging by the increased middle-of-the-road press and marketing presence. CBC and CTV were here (either to cover as news or to promote), and press space on Saturday has been more limited than in previous years.

"But you don't have to take my word for it."

As Levar Burton pointed out in his Q&A session, it's important for people to see themselves represented in popular culture -- whether it's African-Americans (viz. Uhura on the original Star Trek), the disabled (viz. Geordi LaForge on TNG), and so on. And clearly part of the "and so on" are those to whom costumed superheroes or fictional space travellers have meaning.

Burton's presence made this all-encompassing nature clear, as his iconic roles on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Reading Rainbow made clear. One would guess that the Trekkies would have been the majority of those who came out to see Burton, but despite the two shows being very different, there was a lot of overlap -- many fans of both in attendance. One even said he got into Reading Rainbowafter getting into Star Trek.

In fact, it seemed from where I was sitting that the Reading Rainbow crowd was more hard-core. When, after a number of predictable Star Trek questions ("What was your favourite TNG episode, Levar?"), someone asked about Reading Rainbow, the guy behind us blurted out, "Finally, a Reading Rainbow question!"

Since Fan Expo Canada is a strange hybrid between an entertainment trade show and a genuine fan convention, it's always interesting to see which big companies are exhibiting, and what they're pushing.

For instance, the presence of video game companies at the Expo is hit-and-miss. The local Hand Eye Society of Toronto gamers seemed to be listed in the program erroneously last year, and the XBox booth consisted of just a few demos staffed by suspiciously-leggy young ladies who knew less about the games than I did (and I'd never heard of them before). The Nintendo 3DS exhibit was run like a midway ride. So good luck getting any real industry news.

However, this year, some developers seem to be taking a bit more interest in proper promotion. Here's something that THQ sent out leading up to the show:

"It’s that time again where we geeks come together as one at Fan Expo Canada! THQ will have plenty for fans to do at the show – hands-on time with Darksiders II and WWE’13, hands-off demos for Metro: Last Light and South Park: The Stick of Truth! We’ll also have an exclusive opportunity with Bryan Williams, Senior Designer of WWE’13 for interviews and guided gameplay. He will be on hand only on Thursday and Friday, so please let us know what time you’d like to drop by if you want."

LukeArnott.Weebly.com has a new header pic: a nice little pixelated portrait of yours truly listening to a headset back when his age could be measured in single digits. I was never happy with the old one, but never got around to putting together something that gelled with the site design.

But now that I'm procrastinating heavily on my thesis proposal, these sorts of things magically get done!

The Culturenautica Blog header pic has also gotten a refresh, to fit in with the narrower format (250 pixels tall, down from 325).

Well, this post is going to be pretty much what it sounds like. It's been some time since I last posted anything, being busy with tedious re-writes of various academic articles and proposals. So I thought it's time for some good-old-fashioned randomness.

I've recently got back into Star Trek: Conquest, one of only a few strategy games for the Wii (I hadn't played it since it came out over four years ago). I love me a good strategy game, but even the best ones are hampered by dopey AI, if not other, more mundane gameplay issues. And Conquest isn't one of the best -- but it is oddly, addictively compelling.

Part of this is because of its horrible contradictions. On the one hand, it is an absolute mess of a Star Trek game, and yet somebody behind it clearly knows his or her Trek lore. Note the intro:

Stardate 41153.2: It is a time of conflict; all major races are at war. Diplomacy is dead, age-old alliances forgotten and galactic borders ignored as each race battle for supremacy. Powerful fleets prowl the galaxy,establishing outposts, vanquishing indigenous and enemy fleets alike, in the pursuit of the ulimate prize: the capture of all homeworlds and galactic domination.

In other words, Total, Random War! This is not Star Trek. And yet note the Stardate: as any Trekkie worth his velour pullover can tell you, this is clearly set in season one of Star Trek: The Next Generation, fully in keeping with its TNG-era ships and races. The game is full of details like this, even as it inexplicably lets your underpowered ships cut through fleets of Borg assault cubes like they were warm butter.